Aromantic: A person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to others.

Asexual (ACE): Someone who has limited or no sexual feelings or desires.

Androgynous: A term to describe the fluid appearance of an individual.

B

Bear: A man who is hairy or has facial hair and a cuddly body.

Bi: Being bi is when you have an emotional, romantic or sexual orientation towards more than one gender. There are a variety of terms for bi including; bisexual, pansexual, bi-curious.

Binding: Tight wrapping of the chest to minimise the size and appearance of breasts.

Biphobic: Discrimination against someone who identifies as bi.

Butch: A lesbian whose appearance and/or behaviour are seen as traditionally masculine.

C

Camp: A term describing someone with a flamboyant or effeminate manner.

Cisgender (Cis): Someone whose gender identity is the same as the sex they were born with.

Coming Out: When someone tells others about how they identify.

Cross Dressing: Someone who enjoys dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex without necessarily identifying as Lesbian, Bi, Gay or Trans.

D

Deadnaming: Calling someone their birth name after they have changed their name.

Demisexual: A person who isn't sexually attracted to anyone else unless they have formed a deep emotional or romantic connection with them.

Drag Queen/Drag King: Used by people who present in social situations differently from their everyday gender. Many for entertainment, enjoyment or self-expression.

E

Estrogen: The hormone taken to produce feminine characteristics such as breast growth and fat distribution around the hips and thighs. It can also help softening of the skin, decrease in muscle mass, decrease in erections and testicular size.

Equality Act: In the UK the 2010 Equality Act which provides LGBT+ people with protection from discrimination.

F

Femme: Feminine identified person of any sex/gender.

G

Gay: A man who has an emotional, romantic and or sexual orientation towards men. It's also a generic term for lesbian/gay sexuality.

Gender Dysphoria: How someone outwardly expresses their gender within the confines of society's expectations of gender.

Gender Fluid: A person who doesn't identify themselves as having a fixed gender.

Gender Identity: A person's innate sense of their own gender which may or may not correspond with the sex they were assigned to at birth.

Gender neutral: Somewhere neutral for all genders ie: toilets.

Gender reassignment: To undergo gender reassignment usually means to undergo some sort of medical intervention, but can also mean changing names, pronouns, dressing and living as their self-identified gender.

Gender Recognition Certificate: Enables Trans people to be legally recognised in their affirmed gender and to be issued with a new birth certificate.

H

Heterosexual: Someone who has an emotional, romantic or sexual orientation towards people of the opposite gender.

Homosexual: Someone who has an emotional, romantic or sexual orientation towards people of the same gender. The term 'gay' is preferred.

Homophobia: A fear or dislike of someone who is LGBT+. Homophobic bullying is where LGBT+ people or those who are perceived to be LGBT+ are targeted.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): Taken to affect the development of masculine or feminine characteristics.

I

Intersex: Someone who has the biological attributes of both sexes or their biological attributes do not fit with society's assumptions. Intersex people may identify as male, female, or non-binary.

Identity sphere: The idea that gender identities and expression do not fit on a linear scale but on a sphere that allows room for all expression without one expression being better than another.

J

Jazz Jennings: A trans child who documented their transition online and has a TV Show called I Am Jazz. Influential in educating parents about trans issues.

Lesbian: A woman who has emotional, romantic and sexual orientation towards women.

LGBT History Month: A month celebrating LGBT+ people, history and culture. UK celebrates this in February.

M

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013: A time when marriage was legalised for same sex couples in England and Wales. It also covered a law regarding gender change by married people and civil partnerships.

Misgendering: Referring to someone as the wrong gender, often by using the wrong pronouns.

Monogamy: Being in an exclusive relationship with one person.

Mx: A gender neutral alternative to Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms.

N

Neurodiverse: Neurological differences are recognised and respected as any other human difference.

Non-Binary: Someone who does not identify and only male or only female, or who may identify as both.

O

Omnigender: When a person has all genders and is used to challenge the idea that there are only two genders.

Openly gay (also openly lesbian, openly bi, openly trans): People who are open about their identity.

Oppression: Dominating or controlling a group of people by another group with access to social power, the result benefiting one group over another and is maintained by social beliefs and practices.

Otter: A hairy man but smaller in frame than a bear.

Outed: When an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity is disclosed to someone else without their consent.

P

Pangendered: A person whose gender identity is comprised of all or many gender expressions.

Polyamory: Refers to having honest, usually non-possessive, relationships with multiple partners.

Post-op: A term for a transgender person who has had gender reassignment surgery.

Pre-op: A term referring to someone who hasn't had gender reassignment surgery.

Pride: A positive stance against discrimination and violence towards LGBT+ people and to promote their equality and rights. Pride events, parades and marches are held around the year and globally to celebrate this group of people.

Pronoun: Words we use to refer to peoples gender in conversation. We usually use he/she, some people may prefer others to refer to them in gender neutral terms and use pronouns such as they/their and ze/zir.

Q

Queen: Originally a slur against gay men, it has been reclaimed as a positive statement within the community.

Queer: Again originally a derogatory term which some in the gay community now use to identify.

Questioning: The process of considering sexual orientation or gender identity.

R

RuPaul: A Drag Queen, actor, model singer/songwriter, TV personality and author. He has produced and hosted the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race and is the most successful Drag Queen in the USA. RuPaul was in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

S

Section 28: A Local Government Act from 1988 which said that schools 'must not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality' or 'promote the teaching in any mainstream school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. Repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in England and Wales in 2003.

Sex: Assigned to a person on the basis of primary sex characteristics and reproductive functions.

Sexual Orientation: A person's emotional, romantic and sexual attraction to another person.

Skoliosexual: A person who is sexually or romantically attracted to non-binary people, or those who do not identify as cisgender.

Social Transition: The transition of a trans person seen by people around them which can feature coming out, changing gender expression, name and pronouns.

Stonewall: An LGBT Rights Charity named after the Stonewall riots in 1969 at Stonewall Inn (an LGBT bar in New York City). The Stonewall riots were a spontaneous demonstration by members of the gay community against a police raid at Stonewall Inn. Considered one of the most important events leading to modern liberation movement in the USA.

Straight: A heterosexual man or woman.

Straight acting: A gay man who adopts masculine traits.

T

Top surgery: Usually refers to surgery for the construction of a male type chest or breast augmentation.

Trans: An umbrella term used to describe those whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans people may identify using a wide variety of terms: transgender, transsexual, gender-queer (GQ), gender fluid, non-binary, gender variant, crossdresser, agender, non gender, third gender, two spirit, bi-gender, trans man, trans woman, trans masculine, trans feminine and neutrois.

Transgender Man: Someone who is assigned female at birth and identifies and lives as a man.

Transgender woman: Someone who is assigned male at birth and identifies and lives as a woman.

Transitioning: The steps a trans person will take to live in the gender in which they identify. For some this involves medical intervention though not all trans people want or are able to have this.

Transphobia: The fear and dislike of someone based on them being trans

Transsexual: This was used in the past to refer to someone who had transitioned to live in the opposite gender. The term is still used by some, many prefer the term trans or transgender.

Tucking: The practise of concealing the penis and testicles practised by some Trans Women who have not had gender reassignment surgery as well as Drag Artists.

Versatile: A term used with gay men to let other gay men know the way they enjoy to have sex. Other terms are Top and Bottom.

W

Wolf: A man who is hairy like a bear or otter but is more muscular and often more aggressive than the latter.

X

XX/XY Chromosomes: Most females will have two of the same kind of sex chromosomes (XX), males typically have two different kinds of chromosomes (XY). Research has shown there are a variety of multiple number chromosomes. In all cases there are differences to the sexual or gender identity of the person with these differences in chromosomes.

Y

Yaaaaaaaaaaassss! A word used by many RuPaul fans to explain you love something, this is an immediate response.

Z

Ze: An alternative pronoun which is gender neutral and preferred by some gender variant people.

Written by Debs Bamford, Parent Behavioural Specialist with Confidence Camp.

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